The Dance on Camera Festival Celebrates 50 Years

From February 11–14, Dance Films Association and Film at Lincoln Center co-present the 2022 Dance on Camera Festival. Celebrating the festival’s 50th anniversary, the event plans to feature live screenings at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. 

“We are celebrating our long history of connecting dance filmmakers to new audiences,” says co-curator Liz Wolff. Even through unprecedented COVID-19 events, the festival, though it moved online in 2020, remained an unwavering beacon for innovation in the screendance community. As many choreographers newly engaged with film in response to shutdowns of live theater, Wolff says the festival received an overwhelming 359 submissions for its 2022 edition. “I think the pandemic brought a lot of new artists to the table, and there are definitely overarching, reflective themes—isolation, solidarity, loss, mental health—born from the pandemic.”

Like other arts organizations, the upheaval during the last two years spurred DFA to reflect on the impacts of their festival and programming. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts will allow DFA to financially support three to five dance filmmakers through their entire creative process by 2023. “This initiative means we can boost a new generation as we continue looking for what is new and next in dance films,” says Wolff. These in-house funded films will be presented in future Dance on Camera Festivals, providing increased visibility and access for upcoming dance filmmakers.